New Records

Bartok: Contrasts (Robert Mann, violin; Stanley Drucker, clarinet; Leonid Hambro, piano; Bartok). Three short Bartok movements--a fantastic little march, a bluesy interlude and a dazzling dance finale--provide an easy and agreeable introduction to the work of the modern Hungarian master. Performance: excellent.

Beethoven: An die ferne Geliebte (Aksel Schioetz, tenor; Mieczyslaw Horszowski, piano; Columbia). Danish Tenor Schioetz sings with incredible ease and warmth, gives Beethoven's famed song cycle its full, expressive measure.

Honegger: Jeanne d'Arc au Bucher (Vera Zorina as Jeanne: Philadelphia Orchestra, soloists and choirs conducted by Eugene Ormandy; Columbia. 2 LPs). The burning of St. Joan, told in a magnificent mishmash of symbolism, poetry and high drama. Honegger's score contains movements of surpassing beauty, others of sheerest musical exhibitionism. A brilliant performance.

Khachaturian: Cello Concerto (Sviatoslav Knushevitsky; the U.S.S.R. State Orchestra conducted by Alexander Gauk; Vanguard). Written in 1946, this score could almost have been composed a half-century earlier. Khachaturian, a cellist himself, lets the solo instrument sing in a flowing, melancholy tenor. Performance: excellent.

Spanish Music (Pro Musica Antiqua conducted by Safford Cape; EMS). Nineteen selections from the court music of the days of Ferdinand and Isabella, sung in fine style and played on old instruments (recorder, lute, viols).

The Triumphs of Oriana (Randolph Singers conducted by David Randolph; Westminster, 2 LPs). Thirty-two madrigals commissioned in honor of the first Queen Elizabeth. The songs were written by 16th century composers, who were allowed to choose their own texts but were asked to end all with the refrain:

Then sang the shepherds and nymphs of Diana: Long live fair Oriana.*

Most of them have a gaily antique effect: a few, written after Elizabeth's death, are melancholy.

John Vincent: Quartet No. 1 (American Art Quartet; Contemporary). A remarkably cheerful and melodious score, written in 1936 by a gifted but little-known California composer and musicologist. Its four movements are all composed in Greek modes, in a smooth, facile style. Composer Vincent's direction seems apparent in this quartet, but he never quite seems to arrive at a destination.

Other noteworthy new records: four of Handel's works for Ancient Instruments and Soprano, with Valarie Lamoree and the Pro Musica Antiqua of New York (Esoteric); Haydn's Seasons, with the RIAS Symphony, choirs and soloists conducted by Ferenc Fricsay (Decca. 3 LPs); seven evocations Of Gods and Demons, sung by Bass-Baritone George London (Columbia); Scriabin's Poem of Ecstasy, played by the Paris Philharmonic Orchestra under Manuel Rosenthal (Capitol); Howard Swanson's Short Symphony, Franz Litschauer conducting the Vienna State Opera Orchestra (Vanguard); music by Rossini, Cambini and Bonporti, played by the Virtuosi di Roma (Decca).

*In a 14th century romance, the hard-won bride of the chivalrous Amadis of Gaul; in Elizabeth's court, an approved poetic pseudonym for Elizabeth.

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